Books I Read May - August

We're in getting settled in Washington. We've done some fun things that will be blogged about eventually. This post is just priming the pump. Devan's been working far too much. We got into town late on a Thursday night, we unloaded the moving truck on Friday and then he went to training for work on Saturday, had Sunday off and was to work on Monday. He's had the weekends off, and this week was only a 4 day week because of Labor Day. But still, in the 4 days he worked this week, he worked for 56 hours! He's been getting home right around the time the kids go to bed and leaving at 5 in the morning for work. When he's home, he's doesn't act like he's really here and even on the weekends, he's not quite himself. On the bright side, he's made half as much money in the last 3 weeks as he had in the first 8 months of the year, so I really shouldn't whine so much.

As for myself, I've been letting Hannah watch far too much Dora the Explorer and I've been spending all Ben's nap time in bed. I'm so ready to be done being pregnant. On the upside, I've been finding lots of time to read.

Since, I knew you were wondering, these are the books I've read since I reported last:

May

These books are addicting. I completed one a day for 3 days. I did little else for 50 hours but attend to the children’s most basic needs, read and sleep. These books are so intense that I got frustrated every time I had to take a break from reading for a minute. I was excited to start them because everyone I know who’s read them talks about how great they are. I’m not sure if I’d recommend this series to a friend though. They’re definitely entertaining and suspenseful, but they’re also full of evil people doing evil things. And after spending 3 days straight on the edge of my seat, when I was finally finished, I felt agitated and a unsettled inside. Having said all that, I’m super excited to see the movie when it comes out next year!

June

I read nothing. I was a little disgusted with myself for ignoring my kids so badly just to read a few novels. But by the end of the month, TV had slipped back in as an almost daily time waster. I realized that I'm going to neglect my kids a little everyday no matter what and almost anything I choose to read expands my mind more than anything I'd choose to watch on TV. I know this isn't true for everyone, but I make very poor TV choices. Like the Bachelorette. I mean, I watch the bachelorette. I don't know if she makes poor TV choices. I would assume so though.

July

This book examines the state of marriage in our world today. It discusses how throughout human history, marriage hasn’t just been about the happiness of two people, but the happiness of society. Married couples had a duty to their communities to make their marriages work and raise happy, productive families. Likewise, the community had a vested interest in making sure that marriages thrived. Beginning in the 1960s with the “no fault divorce,” this concept of marriage has been unraveling until now when society no longer feels it has a right to demand that couples do everything in their power to make their marriages work for the sake of the larger community. Maybe because of the generation in which I was raised, I’d never thought to view the success of my marriage as a responsibility I owe to my children and society. I’ve never wanted to get divorced, but in the back of my mind I always knew that was an option if my marriage became an unhappy one. As the years have passed, I've realized more and more what a tragedy divorce is.

Many times in the book, Hafen relates the parable of the Good Shepherd, found in John chapter 10 to marriage. Verses 11 and 12 read, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.” He said that in every marriage wolves of adversity are going to come. Are we going to be as hirelings who flee when the wolves come or will we be as the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep?

Roald Dahl is my very favorite children’s author. He wrote books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matida. Oh how I love him. This book is a collection of some of his boyhood recollections. It’s such a fun book, and his childhood experiences, like his books, are at times dark, but always funny and wittily told. My favorite was the story of how he went to the doctor about a throat issue, the doctor told him to open his mouth, and then proceeded to cut out his adenoids without the tiniest bit of anesthesia. Kids were tough back then. This is a short, easy, delightful read.

These are the first two books in a historical fiction trilogy about the time of Jesus' ministry. They're written by the same person who wrote the church history novels, The Work and the Glory, series. These books had an interesting and exciting plot line, but they also gave me a much deeper understand of and love for the gospels. I feel like I better understand the culture and land that produced the Messiah. I also have so much more respect for the men and women who gave up so much to follow the Savior.

August

This isn't a great picture. The author is Louisa May Alcott.

This is a lovely book. I started it in the beginning of January and finally finished it in August. I’m not sure why it took so long. It may have been that the words were in very small type and my eyes aren’t the best. Or it may have been that I didn’t understand all the references in it so I lost interest faster than I might have another book. Regardless, I enjoyed every page of this book. It was a delight to read. It made me want to be a better person and a better mother and to teach my children, especially my daughter, to be virtuous and beautiful.

This was a good book for me to read. I’m afraid of death. Not so much other people’s. My husband can’t even go to funerals because he doesn’t want to deal with death. I don’t have that problem, but I think about my own death a lot. I’m afraid of leaving my children alone. I’m afraid of what it will feel like to die. I get afraid every year as I feel my life slipping away. Morrie was able to accept death and welcome it peacefully. My favorite parts are when he talks about dreading not being able to wipe himself after using the bathroom. He talks about how it’s not such a bad thing, getting old. You get to feel what it’s like to be a baby again and be taken care of by your loved ones. That thought helps me. I hope that I can take good enough care of my children when they are young that they will take care of me in the same way one day.

Crucifixion was a bad, bad way to die. Probably the worst way to die I could imagine. Who could think up such a thing?

These are the first two out of five books in the sequel series to the Children of the Promise books I read in April. This is about the children of the characters in the Children of the Promise books who are growing up in the 1960s and 70s. The ‘60s seemed like angry, confused times. I’m glad I didn’t live back then.

A disturbing and wonderful book. I completely believe that, unchecked, man is naturally evil and capable of horrible things. The part this book leaves out is the part that gives me hope for mankind: that we do have a Redeemer who can somehow make up for all the wrong that we're inclined to do to each other.

This book sat on my shelf for a couple of years before I got the courage to read it. I’d loved Kidd’s first book, The Secret Life of Bees so I wanted to read her next book, but all I knew about it was that it was about a married woman who has an affair with a monk. I didn’t think that I would enjoy it based on the subject matter, but I really did. It was interesting the whole way through, but I was sure the whole time I was reading it that I was going to end up not liking it. But at the end everything turned out as it should and it gave me some good insights into marriage. One of my favorite passages is near the end, the main character thinks, “I felt amazed at the choosing one had to do, over and over, a million times daily – choosing love, then choosing it again, how loving and being in love could be so different.” I love that. It’s hard to choose love every day, but it’s so worth it. 

So, that's what I've been doing with my "leisure" (read: lazy parenting) time. I've read a few more books in September so far, but I'm really hoping to welcome a new little man into my life this month who will significantly cut into my time for novels.